Remember when Eddie Murphy starred in The Nutty Professor and you laughed so hard your stomach hurt? What about Robert DeNiro playing opposite Ben Stiller in Meet the Parents, I’ve seen it over twenty times and I still find it funny.
Showtime isn’t like either of those movies. It has a great comedic actor and a great straight man, but it still lets you down.
The plot revolves around an overbearing, tough-guy cop who is sued by a television station after he blows up one of their cameras. The station says it will drop the suit if Mitch Preston (Robert DeNiro) will star in their version of Cops. Of course, the show’s producer, Chase Renzi (Rene Russo), thinks Mitch needs a partner. And that is where lowly police officer and aspiring actor Trey Sellars (Eddie Murphy) comes in.
Mitch hates Trey because he is a show-off police officer. Trey is annoyed by having a partner as old and dull as Mitch. As usual, the two guys become friends and end up saving the day.
It is a travesty that this movie was so dull. It is not clever or funny enough to have such high-caliber actors in it. The movie is supposed to be making fun of cop shows and the corny friendships that are emphasized in them, but instead it joins the ranks.
The plot doesn’t make very much sense either. First of all, the police chief said Mitch has to be in the show because of the lawsuit, then he ends the show when he gets angry. Another glitch comes when a drug-deal-gone-wrong ends in a massive gunfire and destruction, causing a house to collapse to the ground. Then no one sees or hears anything that night and the police don’t arrive until the next morning. No one heard the gun fire from automatic weapons that are supposed to have bullets the size of your index finger?
Director Tom Dey (Shanghai Noon) brings us back to the old buddy cop movies, but there is no twist, nothing different for the 21st century.
Two highlights in the movie, however, are William Shatner, who plays acting coach to the police officers, and Johnny Cochran, who acts as lawyer for one of the thugs. These guest appearances add a couple of laughs, but can’t save the show.
The bad guy in the movie, Vargas (Pedro Damian), is not that bad. Sure he kills cops, but he owns a dance club as his cover business and wears a lace shirt under his suit. He doesn’t have any memorable bad-guy lines either.
The best parts of the movie are the blow-up scenes. There are over twenty explosions in the movie, and who-knows-how-many fire fights. Also, a rooftop pool collapses on a hotel room and floods through, breaking out the windows in the penthouse. That was pretty spectacular.
So if you’re in the mood for a buddy cop movie with goofy dialogue and a strained story line, go and see it. Just don’t expect too much.
